A varied batch of books this week from quite a few different publishers. Let's have a look, shall we?
Hunter and Fox (A Shifted World Novel #1) by Phillipa Ballantine (Pyr Trade Paperback 06/26/2012) – Ballantine’s one of those authors who have been toiling away for a good chunk of time and now has a quite a few novels/books publishing around the same time. I think Lou Anders was pushing this one as a interesting take on Sword and Sorcery.
In a world that is in constant shifting, where mountains can change to plains and then to lakes, Talyn is the hunter for the Caisah, and a wreck of a once-proud person. She has lost her people, the Vaerli, and her soul working for the man who destroyed her people. All unknowing, she carries within her a Kindred, a chaos creature from the center of the earth that wants to help bring the Vaerli back to power. However, she has lost the ability to communicate with it.
She must also deal with the machinations of Kelanim, the mistress of Caisah, who out of fear will do anything to bring Talyn down.
Little does the Hunter know that salvation is looking for her, and it wears the face of gentleness and strength. Finn is a teller of tales who carries his own dreadful secret. He sets out to find answers to his path but ends up in the city of Perilous and Fair where he meets Talyn. He knows the danger and yet is drawn to her. Their fates are bound together.
Meanwhile, the Hunter's lost brother Byre is searching for his own solution to the terrible curse placed on the Vaerli. He sets forth on a treacherous journey of his own, which will intersect in the most unlikely place with that of Talyn and Finn.
The ramifications of this encounter will be felt by all the people in Conhaero, from the lost Vaerli to the Caisah on his throne.
Rift (A Nightshade Prequel) by Andrea Cremer (Philomel Hardcover 08/06/2012) – A popular Young Adult series gets a prequel.
Chronicling the rise of the Keepers, this is the stunning prequel to Andrea Cremer's internationally bestselling Nightshade trilogy!
Sixteen-year-old Ember Morrow is promised to a group called Conatus after one of their healers saves her mother's life. Once she arrives, Ember finds joy in wielding swords, learning magic, and fighting the encroaching darkness loose in the world. She also finds herself falling in love with her mentor, the dashing, brooding, and powerful Barrow Hess. When the knights realize Eira, one of their leaders, is dabbling in dark magic, Ember and Barrow must choose whether to follow Eira into the nether realm or to pledge their lives to destroying her and her kind.
With action, adventure, magic, and tantalizing sensuality, this book is as fast-paced and breathtaking as the Nightshade novels.
The Eye of the World (Graphic Novel, Volume 2) by Robert Jordan (story), Chuck Dixon (script) and Andie Tong (pencils) (Torc Hardcover 06/19/2012) – I’m in the (slow, protracted) process of re-reading The Wheel of Time and I was reading this in comic book format. Pretty good adaptation, I’d say and the art gets stronger as the issues/story progresses.
The second volume of the magnificent New York Times bestselling graphic novel adaptation of Robert Jordan’s The Eye of the World
With the full cooperation of the Jordan estate, The Eye of the World has been turned into a stunning comic book series. Volume One of The Eye of the World: the Graphic Novel was published by Tor in the Fall of 2011 and was a New York Times bestseller.
In The Eye of the World: the Graphic Novel, Volume Two, scripted by Chuck Dixon and illustrated by Andie Tong, Rand al’Thor, Egwene al’Vere, and their friends flee their home village in the company of Moiraine and her Warder, Lan Mandragoran. Pursued by their enemies, the group seeks sanctuary in Baerlon. Rand’s nightmares grow darker. Moiraine takes Egwene under her wing. Lan warns them to trust no one, but should that distrust extend to Lan and Moiraine as well?
The Eye of the World: the Graphic Novel, Volume Two, collects six issues of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time: The Eye of the World comic book published by Dynamite Entertainment. This book will feature bonus material that gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of a graphic novel.
Technomancer (Unspeakable Things: Book One) by B.V. Larson (47 North Trade Paperback / eBook 07/24/2012) – Larson’s one of the self-published sensations so 47North picked him as one of their first authors under the imprint. I like the premise, which reminds me a bit of Kate Griffin’s A Madness of Angels
A new kind of alien invasion…
When Quentin Draith wakes up in a private sanatorium, he has no memory of who he is or how he received the injuries riddling his body. All he knows is that he has to get out, away from the drugs being pumped into him and back to the real world to search for answers. His first question: How did his friend Tony’s internal organs fill with sand, killing him in a Las Vegas car crash?
After a narrow escape, he tracks down the basic facts: he is an investigator and blogger specializing in the supernatural—which is a good thing, because Quentin’s life is getting stranger by the minute. It seems he is one of a special breed, a person with unusual powers. He’s also the prime suspect in a string of murders linked by a series of seemingly mundane objects. The deeper he digs and the harder he works to clear his name, the more Quentin realizes that some truths are better off staying buried…
False Covenant: (Book Two of Widdershins) by Ari Marmell (Pyr Hardcover 06/26/2012) – Coincidentally, I just posted my review of the first book Theif’s Covenant this past Tuesday. Basically, go out and get it folks, it is a fun book and really readable character.
It’s been over half a year, now, since the brutal murder of Archbishop William de Laurent during his pilgrimage to the Galicien city of Davillon. During that time, the Church of the Hallowed Pact has assigned a new bishop to the city—but it has also made its displeasure at the death of its clergyman quite clear. Davillon’s economy has suffered beneath the weight of the Church’s displeasure. Much of the populace—angry at the clergy— has turned away from the Church hierarchy, choosing private worship or small, independent shrines. And the bishop, concerned for his new position and angry at the people of Davillon, plans to do something about it.
But a supernatural threat is stalking the nighttime streets—a creature of the other world has come to infiltrate the seedier streets of Davillon, to intertwine its tendrils through the lower echelons of society. Faced with both political upheaval and a supernatural threat to its citizenry, the local representatives of the Church are paralyzed and the Guardsmen are in over their heads.
And then there’s Widdershins. Who’s tried, and failed, to stay out of trouble since taking over Genevieve’s tavern. Who’s known to the Church and the Guard both, and trusted by neither. Who may, with some of her Thieves’ Guild contacts, have unwittingly played a part in the bishop’s plans. And who, along with her personal god Olgun, may be the only real threat to the supernatural evil infesting Davillon.
Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human by Grant Morrison (Spiegal & Grau, Trade Paperback 06/26/2012) – I read and reviewed the hardcover when it published last year: “To call this book must-read is an understatement. I’ve been a comic book reader for over 20 years and knew, through Internet trawling and simply reading comics and associated industry magazines, much of what Morrison covered in this brilliant tome. The exuberance with which Morrison shares this history provides addictive reading and some historical perspectives that were new to me.”
From one of the most acclaimed and profound writers in the world of comics comes a thrilling and provocative exploration of humankind’s great modern myth: the superhero
The first superhero comic ever published, Action Comics no. 1 in 1938, introduced the world to something both unprecedented and timeless: Superman, a caped god for the modern age. In a matter of years, the skies of the imaginary world were filled with strange mutants, aliens, and vigilantes: Batman, Wonder Woman, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and the X-Men—the list of names as familiar as our own. In less than a century, they’ve gone from not existing at all to being everywhere we look: on our movie and television screens, in our videogames and dreams. But what are they trying to tell us?
For Grant Morrison, arguably the greatest of contemporary chroniclers of the “superworld,” these heroes are powerful archetypes whose ongoing, decades-spanning story arcs reflect and predict the course of human existence: Through them we tell the story of ourselves, our troubled history, and our starry aspirations. In this exhilarating work of a lifetime, Morrison draws on art, science, mythology, and his own astonishing journeys through this shadow universe to provide the first true history of the superhero—why they matter, why they will always be with us, and what they tell us about who we are . . . and what we may yet become.
Now with a new Afterword
No Peace for the Damned (The Damned Series Book One) by Megan Powell (47 North Trade Paperback / eBook 07/10/2012) – This is Powell’s first novel, it’s nice to see the new 47North imprint take a chance on some new voices.
Magnolia Kelch is no stranger to pain. Beautiful and powerful, she’s spent her entire life at the mercy of her sadistic father and the rest of the Kelch clan, who have tortured her and tested the limits of her powers. After one particularly heinous night that leaves Magnolia nearly dead, she finally sees her chance for escape…
But this first taste of freedom is short-lived when she collides with Thirteen, head of the Network—a secret organization dedicated to fighting supernatural criminals—who recruits her into the group. Even as she’s coming to grips with this new life and the horrific memories that still haunt her, she’s conflicted by her growing attraction to fellow team member Theo and the emergence of new, untested abilities. After months of grueling training, her loyalty to the team is tested when she learns her target is the Network’s most wanted: the Kelch family.
Revenge may course through her veins, but so does the blood of the Kelches. And opposing her family may cost her the thing she treasures most. After all, Magnolia is still a Kelch. And the Kelch are damned.
Year Zero: A Novel by Rob Reid (Del Rey, Hardcover 07/10/2012)– SF Humor, and a debut that seems like it could be fun..
An alien advance party was suddenly nosing around my planet.
Worse, they were lawyering up. . . .
In the hilarious tradition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Rob Reid takes you on a headlong journey through the outer reaches of the universe—and the inner workings of our absurdly dysfunctional music industry.
Low-level entertainment lawyer Nick Carter thinks it’s a prank, not an alien encounter, when a redheaded mullah and a curvaceous nun show up at his office. But Frampton and Carly are highly advanced (if bumbling) extraterrestrials. And boy, do they have news.
The entire cosmos, they tell him, has been hopelessly hooked on humanity’s music ever since “Year Zero” (1977 to us), when American pop songs first reached alien ears. This addiction has driven a vast intergalactic society to commit the biggest copyright violation since the Big Bang. The resulting fines and penalties have bankrupted the whole universe. We humans suddenly own everything—and the aliens are not amused.
Nick Carter has just been tapped to clean up this mess before things get ugly, and he’s an unlikely galaxy-hopping hero: He’s scared of heights. He’s also about to be fired. And he happens to have the same name as a Backstreet Boy. But he does know a thing or two about copyright law. And he’s packing a couple of other pencil-pushing superpowers that could come in handy.
Soon he’s on the run from a sinister parrot and a highly combustible vacuum cleaner. With Carly and Frampton as his guides, Nick now has forty-eight hours to save humanity, while hopefully wowing the hot girl who lives down the hall from him.
Hunter and Fox (A Shifted World Novel #1) by Phillipa Ballantine (Pyr Trade Paperback 06/26/2012) – Ballantine’s one of those authors who have been toiling away for a good chunk of time and now has a quite a few novels/books publishing around the same time. I think Lou Anders was pushing this one as a interesting take on Sword and Sorcery.In a world that is in constant shifting, where mountains can change to plains and then to lakes, Talyn is the hunter for the Caisah, and a wreck of a once-proud person. She has lost her people, the Vaerli, and her soul working for the man who destroyed her people. All unknowing, she carries within her a Kindred, a chaos creature from the center of the earth that wants to help bring the Vaerli back to power. However, she has lost the ability to communicate with it.
She must also deal with the machinations of Kelanim, the mistress of Caisah, who out of fear will do anything to bring Talyn down.
Little does the Hunter know that salvation is looking for her, and it wears the face of gentleness and strength. Finn is a teller of tales who carries his own dreadful secret. He sets out to find answers to his path but ends up in the city of Perilous and Fair where he meets Talyn. He knows the danger and yet is drawn to her. Their fates are bound together.
Meanwhile, the Hunter's lost brother Byre is searching for his own solution to the terrible curse placed on the Vaerli. He sets forth on a treacherous journey of his own, which will intersect in the most unlikely place with that of Talyn and Finn.
The ramifications of this encounter will be felt by all the people in Conhaero, from the lost Vaerli to the Caisah on his throne.
Rift (A Nightshade Prequel) by Andrea Cremer (Philomel Hardcover 08/06/2012) – A popular Young Adult series gets a prequel. Chronicling the rise of the Keepers, this is the stunning prequel to Andrea Cremer's internationally bestselling Nightshade trilogy!
Sixteen-year-old Ember Morrow is promised to a group called Conatus after one of their healers saves her mother's life. Once she arrives, Ember finds joy in wielding swords, learning magic, and fighting the encroaching darkness loose in the world. She also finds herself falling in love with her mentor, the dashing, brooding, and powerful Barrow Hess. When the knights realize Eira, one of their leaders, is dabbling in dark magic, Ember and Barrow must choose whether to follow Eira into the nether realm or to pledge their lives to destroying her and her kind.
With action, adventure, magic, and tantalizing sensuality, this book is as fast-paced and breathtaking as the Nightshade novels.
The Eye of the World (Graphic Novel, Volume 2) by Robert Jordan (story), Chuck Dixon (script) and Andie Tong (pencils) (Torc Hardcover 06/19/2012) – I’m in the (slow, protracted) process of re-reading The Wheel of Time and I was reading this in comic book format. Pretty good adaptation, I’d say and the art gets stronger as the issues/story progresses.The second volume of the magnificent New York Times bestselling graphic novel adaptation of Robert Jordan’s The Eye of the World
With the full cooperation of the Jordan estate, The Eye of the World has been turned into a stunning comic book series. Volume One of The Eye of the World: the Graphic Novel was published by Tor in the Fall of 2011 and was a New York Times bestseller.
In The Eye of the World: the Graphic Novel, Volume Two, scripted by Chuck Dixon and illustrated by Andie Tong, Rand al’Thor, Egwene al’Vere, and their friends flee their home village in the company of Moiraine and her Warder, Lan Mandragoran. Pursued by their enemies, the group seeks sanctuary in Baerlon. Rand’s nightmares grow darker. Moiraine takes Egwene under her wing. Lan warns them to trust no one, but should that distrust extend to Lan and Moiraine as well?
The Eye of the World: the Graphic Novel, Volume Two, collects six issues of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time: The Eye of the World comic book published by Dynamite Entertainment. This book will feature bonus material that gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of a graphic novel.
Technomancer (Unspeakable Things: Book One) by B.V. Larson (47 North Trade Paperback / eBook 07/24/2012) – Larson’s one of the self-published sensations so 47North picked him as one of their first authors under the imprint. I like the premise, which reminds me a bit of Kate Griffin’s A Madness of Angels A new kind of alien invasion…
When Quentin Draith wakes up in a private sanatorium, he has no memory of who he is or how he received the injuries riddling his body. All he knows is that he has to get out, away from the drugs being pumped into him and back to the real world to search for answers. His first question: How did his friend Tony’s internal organs fill with sand, killing him in a Las Vegas car crash?
After a narrow escape, he tracks down the basic facts: he is an investigator and blogger specializing in the supernatural—which is a good thing, because Quentin’s life is getting stranger by the minute. It seems he is one of a special breed, a person with unusual powers. He’s also the prime suspect in a string of murders linked by a series of seemingly mundane objects. The deeper he digs and the harder he works to clear his name, the more Quentin realizes that some truths are better off staying buried…
False Covenant: (Book Two of Widdershins) by Ari Marmell (Pyr Hardcover 06/26/2012) – Coincidentally, I just posted my review of the first book Theif’s Covenant this past Tuesday. Basically, go out and get it folks, it is a fun book and really readable character.It’s been over half a year, now, since the brutal murder of Archbishop William de Laurent during his pilgrimage to the Galicien city of Davillon. During that time, the Church of the Hallowed Pact has assigned a new bishop to the city—but it has also made its displeasure at the death of its clergyman quite clear. Davillon’s economy has suffered beneath the weight of the Church’s displeasure. Much of the populace—angry at the clergy— has turned away from the Church hierarchy, choosing private worship or small, independent shrines. And the bishop, concerned for his new position and angry at the people of Davillon, plans to do something about it.
But a supernatural threat is stalking the nighttime streets—a creature of the other world has come to infiltrate the seedier streets of Davillon, to intertwine its tendrils through the lower echelons of society. Faced with both political upheaval and a supernatural threat to its citizenry, the local representatives of the Church are paralyzed and the Guardsmen are in over their heads.
And then there’s Widdershins. Who’s tried, and failed, to stay out of trouble since taking over Genevieve’s tavern. Who’s known to the Church and the Guard both, and trusted by neither. Who may, with some of her Thieves’ Guild contacts, have unwittingly played a part in the bishop’s plans. And who, along with her personal god Olgun, may be the only real threat to the supernatural evil infesting Davillon.
Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human by Grant Morrison (Spiegal & Grau, Trade Paperback 06/26/2012) – I read and reviewed the hardcover when it published last year: “To call this book must-read is an understatement. I’ve been a comic book reader for over 20 years and knew, through Internet trawling and simply reading comics and associated industry magazines, much of what Morrison covered in this brilliant tome. The exuberance with which Morrison shares this history provides addictive reading and some historical perspectives that were new to me.”From one of the most acclaimed and profound writers in the world of comics comes a thrilling and provocative exploration of humankind’s great modern myth: the superhero
The first superhero comic ever published, Action Comics no. 1 in 1938, introduced the world to something both unprecedented and timeless: Superman, a caped god for the modern age. In a matter of years, the skies of the imaginary world were filled with strange mutants, aliens, and vigilantes: Batman, Wonder Woman, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and the X-Men—the list of names as familiar as our own. In less than a century, they’ve gone from not existing at all to being everywhere we look: on our movie and television screens, in our videogames and dreams. But what are they trying to tell us?
For Grant Morrison, arguably the greatest of contemporary chroniclers of the “superworld,” these heroes are powerful archetypes whose ongoing, decades-spanning story arcs reflect and predict the course of human existence: Through them we tell the story of ourselves, our troubled history, and our starry aspirations. In this exhilarating work of a lifetime, Morrison draws on art, science, mythology, and his own astonishing journeys through this shadow universe to provide the first true history of the superhero—why they matter, why they will always be with us, and what they tell us about who we are . . . and what we may yet become.
Now with a new Afterword
No Peace for the Damned (The Damned Series Book One) by Megan Powell (47 North Trade Paperback / eBook 07/10/2012) – This is Powell’s first novel, it’s nice to see the new 47North imprint take a chance on some new voices. Magnolia Kelch is no stranger to pain. Beautiful and powerful, she’s spent her entire life at the mercy of her sadistic father and the rest of the Kelch clan, who have tortured her and tested the limits of her powers. After one particularly heinous night that leaves Magnolia nearly dead, she finally sees her chance for escape…
But this first taste of freedom is short-lived when she collides with Thirteen, head of the Network—a secret organization dedicated to fighting supernatural criminals—who recruits her into the group. Even as she’s coming to grips with this new life and the horrific memories that still haunt her, she’s conflicted by her growing attraction to fellow team member Theo and the emergence of new, untested abilities. After months of grueling training, her loyalty to the team is tested when she learns her target is the Network’s most wanted: the Kelch family.
Revenge may course through her veins, but so does the blood of the Kelches. And opposing her family may cost her the thing she treasures most. After all, Magnolia is still a Kelch. And the Kelch are damned.
Year Zero: A Novel by Rob Reid (Del Rey, Hardcover 07/10/2012)– SF Humor, and a debut that seems like it could be fun..An alien advance party was suddenly nosing around my planet.
Worse, they were lawyering up. . . .
In the hilarious tradition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Rob Reid takes you on a headlong journey through the outer reaches of the universe—and the inner workings of our absurdly dysfunctional music industry.
Low-level entertainment lawyer Nick Carter thinks it’s a prank, not an alien encounter, when a redheaded mullah and a curvaceous nun show up at his office. But Frampton and Carly are highly advanced (if bumbling) extraterrestrials. And boy, do they have news.
The entire cosmos, they tell him, has been hopelessly hooked on humanity’s music ever since “Year Zero” (1977 to us), when American pop songs first reached alien ears. This addiction has driven a vast intergalactic society to commit the biggest copyright violation since the Big Bang. The resulting fines and penalties have bankrupted the whole universe. We humans suddenly own everything—and the aliens are not amused.
Nick Carter has just been tapped to clean up this mess before things get ugly, and he’s an unlikely galaxy-hopping hero: He’s scared of heights. He’s also about to be fired. And he happens to have the same name as a Backstreet Boy. But he does know a thing or two about copyright law. And he’s packing a couple of other pencil-pushing superpowers that could come in handy.
Soon he’s on the run from a sinister parrot and a highly combustible vacuum cleaner. With Carly and Frampton as his guides, Nick now has forty-eight hours to save humanity, while hopefully wowing the hot girl who lives down the hall from him.
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